San Diego County, San Diego Rat Control Situation:
Hi David, Is a UV blacklight still useful, exterior-wise, if it rains after the rodents leave their urine stains? I am in the process of performing exterior maintenance to better exclude my roof rats. 1) I have a 25 year old cedar shake roof in San Diego California with openings under each shake along the rake edge of the roof at the gable ends of my house. There's no drip edge, i.e. under the shakes I have roofing paper (now somewhat curled) that runs more or less up to and rests right atop the fascia board. Because I have skip sheathing, and since the cross section of a shake is a wedge that is up to one inch at the upper, thick end, this appears to create many huge entry points along the rake edges even though the sheathing is rabbeted into the fascia board. As a result, I'm thinking of getting a UV blacklight to use outside the house to sleuth for urine stains along the upper edge of the gable end shakes and fascia boards. My question is, how easily does the winter rain wash away the urine, rendering this a pointless exercise? 2) I noticed a new product called "rat-out gel" and was thinking of applying it along the rake edges mentioned above. Or, maybe I should just buy many rolls of X-Clude and use that instead. Or maybe both. Any comment? Thanks very much for your website, Doug
My response: First off, I do not have experience using UV lights to detect rat urine. But I do suspect that rain will severely limit the effectiveness of this approach. I have never heard of Rat-Out Gel or XClude, but I typically stick to physical barriers rather than repellent type devices. If your roof makes this impossible, you might have a tough time keeping the rats out.
San Diego Rat Control Tip of The Week
Ways To Get Rats Out Of My Garage
Clean Your Garage Out:
Before you begin setting down traps to work on removing rats from the area, you need to eliminate places where they can hide. Store trash and other items outside of your garage. Clean out your garage to make sure that there is no need for a competing food source or a problem with rats hiding in enclosed containers.
Setting Traps:
Setting down traps and using various methods for getting rid of rats is the next step. You can consider items like glue traps, snap traps, and certain types of poison. Rats can easily track poison around a garage so it can be important to keep your pets out of the area whenever possible.
Seal Up Areas Of Your Garage:
If rats have the chance to get into your garage, this could mean that their numbers will grow. Sealing up the ceiling and looking for signs where rats can get in can be important.
Disposal:
Making sure that you dispose of materials where rats have been can be important. Get rid of nest materials and make sure that you remove any of the rat carcasses from your garage as these can start to smell and cause other issues. Proper disposal can be a solution that will help you to remove the rats from your home and make sure they do not return.
Use Bleach:
Rats have a great sense of smell and they will often avoid areas that have been cleaned or bleached. If you have an area that has been bleached, that will often prevent rats from making their way into your garage and avoiding the area.
